Espumilla Bay
Early this morning, before breakfast, we arrived at Espumilla Bay in Santiago Island. It was misty and cold but we knew that this would be a rewarding visit, so we were ready to go for the wet landing at 7:00 in the morning. As we walked higher in elevation we viewed a beautiful landscape and saw a nice rainbow embracing the National Geographic Islander, which made for great pictures.
There is an incredibly tall incense tree forest here, something hard to find on the other islands, and we had a great opportunity to talk about the eradication of exotic animals in Galápagos as we walked. The island of Santiago was saved from introduced organisms long ago and Lindblad Expeditions was a great supporter of this project, so our explorers feel very proud after they are told how much we care about conservation here.
After the walk we went back to the ship for a well-deserved breakfast and soon afterwards we moved to Buccaneer Cove, with a plan to go Zodiac riding along the coast and then explorer the underwater areas of this site.
Puerto Egas
After breakfast we had a talk about Darwin and some time for a short siesta before our afternoon expedition. This time we had a wet landing at Puerto Egas where a coastal walk offered great chances to identify a good number of shorebirds, as well as some Galápagos fur seals. It was windy and a little chilly, but the walk was worthwhile not only for the birds and sea lions, but also an incredible number of Sally Lightfoot Crabs and iguanas. After a fantastic walk we headed back towards the ship, and are looking forward to another great adventure tomorrow.
